Psychic Cop
Location: Knoxville, Tennessee Date: April 4, 1988 Story After four years on the force, Officer Mike Loveday was well aware of the dangers of his job. But on April 4, 1988, something happened that he never would have predicted. Mike had come home about 6:30am and gone to bed, when he suddenly had a nightmare that his wife, Becky, was killed in a car accident. He woke up and called for her, who was downstairs with their son, Benjamin. When she rushed upstairs and asked what was wrong, he said he just had a bad dream and went back to sleep. This concerned her because he did not normally do so. That night, Mike went to work as usual, and called Becky at about midnight. She convinced him to tell her about his dream and he did. He then said he would talk to his captain and try to come home around 2am. They said goodbye and hung up. "After that call, I just knew that something was going to happen," said Becky. Shortly afterwards, Mike met up with fellow officer Ed Cummings. They were talking by their cars when they saw a black Mustang recklessly drifting on the road, which was wet from recent rain. The driver sped off when he saw them and they started to chase him. When dispatch asked Mike for a description over the radio, he didn't answer, and Ed thought he dropped it. Suddenly, Mike's patrol car sped through a slippery spot on the wet road. He hit the brakes, but the car spun out. It then rolled backwards and the rear end hit a telephone pole, causing Mike to jerk backwards and hit his head on the divider between the front and back seats. The car jerked forward, then rolled back and hit the pole again. Ed radioed dispatch immediately and told them about the accident. The dispatcher then put out an emergency call to the rescue units. Ed could see smoke pouring out from under the hood and feared it would catch fire and burn Mike alive. Because of the damage to the rear end, the doors were jammed and Ed couldn't open them to free Mike. "All that was holding him up was his seat belt," Ed recalled, "and I just didn't think he was going to make it." Some men from a wrecking company were monitoring a police scanner nearby, and rushed to the scene when they heard the report of the accident. They brought a crowbar to help Ed pry open the doors, but although it helped slightly, they were making no progress. They knew they had tools to break the window which they were sure would get Mike free, but Ed saved it as a last resort because it could also injure him further. Three more Sheriff's Deputies rushed to the scene upon hearing of a fellow officer in trouble. A fire rescue unit also arrived with advanced tools to open the doors. EMT Bobby Mathieson arrived with the first medical units soon after. The driver's door finally popped open and Bobby climbed into the car. He found Mike still alive and checked his breathing. "I was worried that he would stop breathing and just die in the car, and there wouldn't be a whole lot I could do for him while he was in the car," said Bobby. As Mike was extracted from the car and rushed to the hospital, the police dispatcher called Becky and informed her of the accident. "I remembered his dream," said Becky, "And I realized that it was coming true - not for me, but for him." Mike was brought in to the hospital in a coma, and was determined to have sustained a serious head injury from the accident. Becky came into his room, imagined herself lying in his place, and even wished she was suffering instead of him. She was sure he was going to die just as she had in his dream. However, he came out of the coma after four days. Mike fully recovered after a year and a half of therapy, during which Becky gave birth to a daughter. He is happy to be back on the force, and now understands that life has some dangers impossible to prepare for. Though the Mustang's driver escaped, police later apprehended him by tracing the plates on his car. He was convicted of both reckless driving and resisting arrest, and sentenced to 2 days in prison. Category:1988 Category:Tennessee Category:Motor-Vehicle Accidents